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I don't mind that, that's what mystery is supposed to be, investigation.
But not random running around with no progress what so ever:
"Tell me!"
"NO!"
"Ok..."
Few minutes later...
"Tell me!"
"NO!"
"Ok..."

And like that for the last 5 episodes x_x
I thought that death in episode 3 would make things rolling but no, we came back to the start.
Now that he knows what class was hiding means that we won't have to go through same routine again.

And about document change, it is far easier to change documents than memories. Memories have no boundaries while documents are limited to several pages where only several lines need to be changed. Changing documentation is not that hard, especially if you are a ghost
And is far easier to get inside the file than head.

Just how many people have fake driving licenses, passports, recommendations and so on? Thousands!
But how many people have changed memories? Unless they have amnesia I doubt there is anyone. Though even with amnesia people still tend to remember something.

Changing memories is difficult? Really? You overestimate the human mind. In fact, the human mind has the tendency to fill in the gaps where inconsistencies arise. None would be the wiser. Basically just tell a mind what changes it needs to make and the mind will do the rest. >_> If inconsistencies arise between the recollections of two people, one or both people will make corrections to their memories accordingly. There have been actual studies on this, you know?

And why do you keep on insisting that they just "should have told him" when they couldn't? The last one who tried to do so died.

I doubt that the memory alteration is that half-assed. I actually think it's very thorough. Besides, it seems even the "dead" person is unaware. (it's not a ghost)

That being said, anomalies do appear. The process for example, does not magically conjure up an additional seat for the extra person to sit. That is the only clue that people have of somebody being added in the first place. The memory alterations themselves are very thorough and even if you compare the accounts of dozens of people they will probably add up.

Someone could have easily taken away a desk and said "There's an extra student now! No one can figure out who it is because your memories and all documents have been modified! It's now impossible to figure out who the another is. Now the curse will kill half of us." No papers, pictures, or memories would actually be modified, because they'd all be real. The fact that nobody could figure out the identity of the another would convince them that the curse is real. After all, it's a lot easier to move a desk out of a room than it is to modify documents and memories

That's assuming that the curse is magical in nature, in the first place. I contend that there is a rational solution on the human side, and I believe that Mei's metaphorical way of speaking is the key.

Let me play the witch.

Mei doesn't know the truth yet.

Obviously, this implies that she isn't actually speaking metaphorically, she is only speculating and doesn't know anymore than any other students.

And why do you keep on insisting that they just "should have told him" when they couldn't? The last one who tried to do so died.

Then don't freaking drag it for 4-5 episodes and make at least something happen in the middle!
We just had 5 damned episodes! What happened during those 5 episodes?
1. We met Misaki, ok cool! Class is being suspicious, but whatever. Main character is not that interested.

2. We found doll shop, creepy! Class keeps being OBVIOUSLY strange. Main hero makes small investigation for like what... 2 mins? Misaki takes off her eye patch. Wow, so much happened...

3. Aaahhh, finally some back story about which I read in SERIES DESCRIPTION! Seriously, it took 44 minutes to just get past series description! In those 44 minutes they could have at least developed characters a bit so I could care when they get killed off.
Oh yeh, we got a very memorable death! Though the only reason I cared was because of how gross it was and because something finally happened after 66 minutes into the show!

4. Nurse was the only character I cared about and that's basically all I remember from that episode. And I watched it only few days ago! If not the nurse we still would be stuck on the same page as episode 3 And nurse parts only took about 5 mins. What other 15 mins were wasted on? Ok about 3 mins were about poor umbrella girl. Another 12?

For a 12 episode long series that's the biggest drag I have ever seen! With 5 episodes into the show I'm supposed to care for characters and at least recognize them by faces! But no, I have no idea who that heart problematic kid was! Heck! I barely know anything about pig tails girl who stands out the most out of everyone in the class! And I'm not even a bit interested in main hero either though maybe now he'll get interesting.

To summarize it till episode 5, series are bad... all the possible suspense was wasted because of the wasted time.

Want to see good mystery/horror? Get a ticket, go to cinema and watch Woman in Black. Even though no side characters got really flashed out, main heroe's ghost problems were more than enough since it had the atmosphere and build up.

P.S. A lot of people consider Shiki to be a drag but it took only 1 episode to get pass description and to actual good bits.

P.S. A lot of people consider Shiki to be a drag but it took only 1 episode to get pass description and to actual good bits.

Shiki had no mystery,the viewer could figure out after a couple episodes max what was going on,the entertainment came from seeing how the characters were going to figure it out,but as a viewer you already had nearly all the info.Another is a completely different beast.

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What other 15 mins were wasted on?

Dropping vital clues about what's going on,no, episode 4 doesn't outright tell you what is going on but it gives you enough info to speculate which is where the fun is.
For exemple Kouichi Aunt doesn't outright say "look Kouichi,your mom was victim of the curse and that's why she died after giving birth to you".

She just mentions that she was in class 3-3 15 years ago,using that info you remember that Kouichi is 15 and you remember from a previous episode that his mom died shortly after his birth.You add all that info together and you get the above mentioned theory.

If you cut down half the show you cut off basicly all the info the viewer has to speculate upon and believe me I would find it a lot less interesting.

Shiki had no mystery,the viewer could figure out after a couple episodes max what was going on,the entertainment came from seeing how the characters were going to figure it out,but as a viewer you already had nearly all the info.

^ This. And it didn't help that the cast of Shiki was far too huge and, by the middle of it, I couldn't care less for any of them, dead or alive. The majority of the characters were either too passive or too over-the-top. This, combined with the lack of mystery, basically killed the series for me, though I did stick with it to the end, in the vain hope that things would, somehow, pick up eventually.

And don't get me started on the ridiculous character designs. There just wasn't anything suspenseful about Shiki's atmosphere, let alone anything horrific. In the end, the show just descended into a corny and predictable blood fest. Not fun. At least, not for me.

Now, I expect plenty of people would disagree. That's fine, just as I wouldn't expect everyone to enjoy Another. I wholeheartedly agree that there do seem to be a number of plot holes, but the major difference is that none of them have yet been serious enough to destroy my willingness to suspend disbelief. More importantly, we are yet to see if they are, in fact, plot holes and not red herrings.

And that's just the thing. If you're not the type who enjoys a gradual build-up of tension and atmosphere, then Another is probably not the kind of thriller for you. As things stand, it's still a bit early to judge whether the pacing is just right or too slow.

What I do know is that I've been enjoying the ride so far. Much more than I had with Shiki.

Dropping vital clues about what's going on,no, episode 4 doesn't outright tell you what is going on but it gives you enough info to speculate which is where the fun is.
For exemple Kouichi Aunt doesn't outright say "look Kouichi,your mom was victim of the curse and that's why she died after giving birth to you".

She just mentions that she was in class 3-3 15 years ago,using that info you remember that Kouichi is 15 and you remember from a previous episode that his mom died shortly after his birth.You add all that info together and you get the above mentioned theory.

If you cut down half the show you cut off basicly all the info the viewer has to speculate upon and believe me I would find it a lot less interesting.

We knew that his mother was studying at the same school as him and at the same age. Since she died later on it was not hard to guess that she was most likely in class 3. I've got that right from the start, I didn't need 4 episodes in order for his aunt to said out loud
Besides his aunt was running around the bush for 5 min before she said it. For the obvious piece of information, it was too long. There was too much emphasis on her head ace so there better be something about it in the future.

And no it doesn't, with 3 episodes it would be enough to get pass boring part and to give time for speculation. Especially since none of secondary characters got flashed out.

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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

^ This. And it didn't help that the cast of Shiki was far too huge and, by the middle of it, I couldn't care less for any of them, dead or alive. The majority of the characters were either too passive or too over-the-top. This, combined with the lack of mystery, basically killed the series for me, though I did stick with it to the end, in the vain hope that things would, somehow, pick up eventually.

It was a village for a reason you know. You can't have a big village of 30 people. 2-3 deaths among 1300 people have barely any role, it needs to be far bigger than that. Besides Shiki had only few main characters, everyone else were there to die and move the plot, only few characters were significant. Every death made things rolling on someones part while here it took 4 deaths to finally make a move in story.

Here every death is supposed to have a huge impact and in order to have it, you need to care for characters. I don't.

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And don't get me started on the ridiculous character designs. There just wasn't anything suspenseful about Shiki's atmosphere, let alone anything horrific. In the end, the show just descended into a corny and predictable blood fest. Not fun. At least, not for me.

At least it was different from norm. Here almost every character has the same face.
And Shiki was not meant to be mystery, you can tell that just by looking at the eyes. It was more about exploring the "if". Shiki cast were like rats trapped with serpents while we viewers are scientists who observe and study.

Quote:

And that's just the thing. If you're not the type who enjoys a gradual build-up of tension and atmosphere, then Another is probably not the kind of thriller for you. As things stand, it's still a bit early to judge whether the pacing is just right or too slow.

What I do know is that I've been enjoying the ride so far. Much more than I had with Shiki.

I always liked shows with slow build up but that was totally ridiculous.
Just take a look at The Sixth Sence, The Others and The Woman In Black. All of them have slow starts with gradual build up but none of them dragged. The Woman In Black is different since it is tense whole time but the other two needed time. That time was spent to explore characters, their personalities and bring them closer together or separate them. There was almost always some kind of action before actual suspense came, you got to know the characters what made you care.Another has none of that so far.

I will try to be quiet from episode 6 and watch it till the end before giving my last critique.
I truthfully hope that pace will improve now and that I will finally get to enjoy it.

We knew that his mother was studying at the same school as him and at the same age. Since she died later on it was not hard to guess that she was most likely in class 3. I've got that right from the start, I didn't need 4 episodes in order for his aunt to said out loud

Yet again,you're not paying close enough attention.
The aunt never said Kouichi's mom was in class 3,we learned that later, her being in class 3 might have nothing to do with the cause of her death,after all the curse only started taking effect after she left the class.It's her sister being in class 3 that seems to have been the cause since she was a family member of someone in class 3-3.
For all we know members of the original class of 26 years ago could all be doing fine as long as they don't have relatives that were in class 3-3 after them.

Kouichi is 15,his mom dies when giving birth to him (or shortly after) so she died 15 years ago.
His aunt was in class 3 15 years ago,the same year as Kouichi's birth.
So Kouichi's mom died the year her sister was in class 3.
The curse can affect family members of students in class 3,so it's possible Kouchi's mom was one of the victims of the curse that year.

I'm not the first person to bring this up,others have brought it up before.

^ Yeah, I noticed it right when it was mentioned. Especially when you connect the dots of "All the Sakakibara members be in Class 3" coincidence. The librarian was certainly shocked to hear that Kouchii's mother was Ritsuko. So maybe his family has the callsign of "Death" possibly? Remember in episode 1 when they struggled to even mention his last name? It could just be his name being incredibly hard to pronounce. Or something about it prevents them from wanting to say it.

For a 12 episode long series that's the biggest drag I have ever seen! With 5 episodes into the show I'm supposed to care for characters and at least recognize them by faces! But no, I have no idea who that heart problematic kid was! Heck! I barely know anything about pig tails girl who stands out the most out of everyone in the class! And I'm not even a bit interested in main hero either though maybe now he'll get interesting.

Ok youre missing the vital point that ALL horror anime, books, movies whatever need. Build up. Sorry you dont like Another's build up but thats what it's doing. So it took 5 episodes for Kouichi to find out what happened. Ummm if you were in the class would you have told him right away knowing what might happen to you? No you wouldnt off. As screwed as this class might be they still value their lives, hence the Counter measures. Hints were dropped, again going with the build up. People start dying, build up. Finally he finds out whats going on.

Funny thing is I have a feeling the people who are considering show boring, would have probably considered it "rushed" had he found out everything in epi 2. Horror feeds on atmosphere, misdirection and in more cases gore. Another has all 3 and Ive been happy with it so far.

Shiki had its flaws but then 2nd half was brillant (IMHO) again though it was based on build up to the last several epis.

Got to agree with White Manju Bun here. Of course, some horror movies just rely on "cheap scares" to get the best out of people. Another has been slowly building things up, especially with that music playing in the background. The dolls at the shop, the sudden impalement/elevator crash in episodes 3-4. Now we have someone that died of a heart attack RIGHT when he would confess. So counter measures would surely dub Kouchii as the death dealer of the class alongside Misaki.

Remember in episode 1 when they struggled to even mention his last name? It could just be his name being incredibly hard to pronounce. Or something about it prevents them from wanting to say it.

Mei even says it's a name associated with a cruel death.
There's a couple of interesting things though:
-Unless things are different in Japan Kouichi's name (Sakakibara) comes from his father's side and his mom and aunt had a different maiden name while going to school,we don't know it.
-While it is associated to a cruel death according to Mei,it's not associated (yet?) to Misaki's death 26 years ago,that legend doesn't specify how Misaki died and we havn't heard the name Sakakibara associated to it.
So does that mean there's another separate incident?Or is the legend some cover story for something a lot more sordid involving Sakakibara?